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English Language (K-3 Grade)

Student Enrichment Reading Program

Introduction

The Student Enrichment Reading Program, K-1, at the Student Academy of Knowledge, while created to supplement and support the student’s standard learning experience in his or her school environment, will challenge, enhance and enrich the student’s reading and writing skills to a level beyond that found in the standard school curriculum. All students, however, will be in a safe and supportive environment, where the primary purpose is to develop the students’ critical thinking skills and to develop a lifelong love of reading and of questioning the world around them.

Goals

To provide an environment that encourages divergent thinking and supports the development of originality, fluency, flexibility and elaboration.

To advance the process of inquiry through the application of skills by investigating real life situations.

To provide students with opportunities to develop leadership skills through positive group interaction.

To encourage a lifelong commitment to learning.

Course Content

The purpose of the reading enrichment program is to challenge the students by exposing them to different literary genres in whole, small, and individual groupings. Students will be expected to become independent and more sophisticated readers through explicit instruction and consistent modeling of reading comprehension strategies. These strategies include inferring, asking questions, making connections, determining importance in text, creating mental images, and synthesizing information. Ultimately, the students will be responsible for sustaining meaningful discussions by applying the above comprehension strategies in textual analyses.

Course Curriculum From Kindergarten to First Grade Students

Skills Development

Print Concepts

Demonstrate understanding of the organization and basic features of print.

Follow words from left to right, top to bottom, and page by page.

Recognize that spoken words are represented in written language by specific sequences of letters.

Distinguish between similarly spelled words by identifying the sounds of the letters that differ.

Words, syllables, or phonemes written in /slashes/refer to their pronunciation or phonology. Thus, /CVC/ is a word with three phonemes regardless of the number of letters in the spelling of the word.

Reading Learning Priorities

With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a story.

With prompting and support, retell familiar stories, including key details.

With prompting and support, identify characters, settings, and major events in a story.

With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about unknown words in a text.

With prompting and support, recognize common types of texts (e.g., storybooks, poems)

With prompting and support, name the author and illustrator in a story and define the role of each in telling the story.

With prompting and support understand the relationship between illustrations and the story in which they appear. (e.g., what moment in a story an illustration depicts.).

With prompting and support. compare and contrast the adventures and experiences of characters in familiar stories.

With prompting and support, engage in group reading activities with purpose and understanding.

With prompting and support, identify the main topic and retell the key details in a text.

With prompting and support, describe the connection between two individuals, events, ideas, or pieces of information in a text.

With prompting and support, identify the front cover, back cover, and title page of a book.

With prompting and support, identify the reasons an author gives to support points in a text.

With prompting and support, identify basic similarities in and differences between two texts on the same topic (e.g., in illustrations, descriptions, or procedures).

Writing Development

Writing Learning Priorities

Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose opinion pieces in which they tell a reader the topic or the name of the book they are writing about and state an opinion or preference about the topic or book (e.g., My favorite book is...)

Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose informative/explanatory texts in which they name what they are writing about and supply some information about the topic.

Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to narrate a single event or several loosely linked events, tell about the events in the order in which they occurred, and provide a reaction to what happened.

With guidance and support from adults, respond to questions and suggestions from peers and add details to strengthen writing as needed.

Participate in shared research and writing projects (e.g., explore a number of books by a favorite author and express opinions about them).

With guidance and support from adults, recall information from experiences, or gather information from provided sources to answer a question

Course Material and Resources

The course will begin with an excerpt from the children’s classic, “Black Beauty”. Thereafter, children’s literature from a variety of genres will be explored; such as poetry, drama, fiction, and non-fiction, as well as the basic plots of classic fairy tales, myths, folktale, legends, and fables from around the world.

Copies of the first reading excerpt will be provided to the children; the acquisition of future copies of reading material will be determined as the semester continues.

Students will need a two pocket folder to keep copies of their class work.

Course Curriculum For Second Grade Students

Skills Development

Vocabulary Development

word analysis, decoding, and vocabulary development.

recognize and use complex word families when reading to decode unfamiliar words.

use sentence and word contexts to find meanings of unknown words. Learn to use a dictionary to find meanings and other features of unknown words.

Reading Comprehension

read narrative and expository text aloud, fluently and accurately, and with appropriate pacing, intonation, and expression. Students learn to understand antonyms, synonyms, homophones, and homographs to determine the meanings of words.

reading skill comprehension strategies such as generating and responding to essential questions, making predictions, and comparing information from several sources. For example, comprehending of the purpose in reading, so students develop reading skills by telling about the information being sought. They are expected to ask questions and support answers by connecting prior knowledge with literal information found in, and inferred from, the text

demonstrating comprehension by identifying answers in the text. They recall major points in the text and make and modify predictions about forthcoming information

learning to distinguish the main idea and supporting details in expository text, then extracting appropriate and significant information including problems and solutions.

following simple multiple-step written instructions appropriate to their reading level, and interpreting information from diagrams, charts, and graphs.

learning to use titles, tables of contents, chapter headings, glossaries, and indexes to locate information in text.

Literary Response

literary response and analysis using various genres of children’s literature. Students are introduced to a wide variety of significant works of appropriate children's literature. Students develop reading skills by distinguishing between structural features of the text and literary elements such as theme, plot, setting, and characters.

encouraging development of an ability to distinguish common forms of literature such as poetry, drama, fiction, and non-fiction, as well as the basic plots of classic fairy tales, myths, folktale, legends, and fables from around the world.

determining what characters are like by what they say or do and by how the author or illustrator portrays them.

learn to determine the underlying theme or author's message.

helping children recognize the similarities of sounds in words and rhythmic patterns such as alliteration and onomatopoeia in reading selections.

identifying the speaker or narrator

Writing Development

Through modeling and guided writing practice, students develop their writing skills in the following areas:

Narratives: Writing that tells a story or recounts an event.

Responses to Literature: Writing which reacts to the action, characters, plot, philosophy, or other elements of a piece of literature.

Reports: Writing that results from gathering, investigating, and organizing facts and thoughts on a topic.

Procedures: Writing that explains a process or informs an audience about how to do something.

Personal Essays: Writing in which an author explores and shares the meaning of a personal experience.

Grammar, punctuation and spelling skills are embedded in the writing development curriculum.

Course Material and Resources

The course will begin with the children’s classic, “Charlotte’s Web”. Thereafter, children’s literature from a variety of genres will be explored; such as poetry, drama, fiction, and non-fiction, as well as the basic plots of classic fairy tales, myths, folktale, legends, and fables from around the world.

Students may use online resources as directed by the teacher.

Students should have two journals (spiral or marble)—one for vocabulary/grammar usage and one for writing assignments.

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About Us

The Student Academy Of Knowledge opened in January of 2015 in the Northeast Philadelphia area. The academy is a weekend enrichment school that offers advanced and remedial education for students Pre-K through 12th grade. Our program is designed to enhance skills and knowledge taught in the schools in the tri-state area by providing more advanced curriculum to students. We provide preparation for those seeking a college degree and higher-level education courses. A wide variety of weekend classes give young people opportunities for well-rounded development and to discover their individual potential and drive for what they are learning. Our highly qualified team of experienced teachers helps our students cultivate a love for learning and inspire passion to explore interests to become future professionals.